Drugs, Alcohol, and Student Crime in the United States, April-May 1989 (ICPSR 9585)

This project examined different aspects of campus crime --
specifically, the prevalence of crimes among college students, whether
the crime rate was increasing or decreasing on college campuses, and
the factors related to campus crime. Researchers made the assumption
that crimes committed by and against college students were likely to
be related to drug and alcohol use. Specific questions designed to be
answered by the data include: (1) Do students who commit crimes differ
in their use of... (more info)

This project examined different aspects of campus crime --
specifically, the prevalence of crimes among college students, whether
the crime rate was increasing or decreasing on college campuses, and
the factors related to campus crime. Researchers made the assumption
that crimes committed by and against college students were likely to
be related to drug and alcohol use. Specific questions designed to be
answered by the data include: (1) Do students who commit crimes differ
in their use of drugs and alcohol from students who do not commit
crimes? (2) Do students who are victims of crimes differ in their use
of drugs and alcohol from students who are not victims? (3) How do
multiple offenders differ from single offenders in their use of drugs
and alcohol? (4) How do victims of violent crimes differ from victims
of nonviolent crimes in their use of drugs and alcohol? (5) What types
of student crimes are more strongly related to drug or alcohol use
than others? (6) Other than drug and alcohol use, in what ways can
victims and perpetrators of crimes be differentiated from students who
have had no direct experiences with crime? Variables include basic
demographic information, academic information, drug use information,
and experiences with crime since becoming a student.

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Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as
the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the
Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.

Methodology

Sample:
This study was based on a national cross-sectional sample
of college undergraduates in the United States. The sample was
selected from AMERICAN STUDENTS LIST: COLLEGE STUDENTS AT HOME OR
SCHOOL ADDRESS, published by the American List Council, Princeton, New
Jersey. A sample of 6,000 student names and addresses was selected
from the original list of 1,300,000. The sample size was determined by
researchers to achieve a final sample of respondents that included
information on at least 100 student perpetrators. Also included were
respondents who participated in pilot surveys and pretests. These
cases were not randomly selected, but were drawn from the student
population at Towson State University, and should not be considered as
part of the representative sample of current college students within
the United States.

Data Source:

self-enumerated questionnaires

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Standardized missing values.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:1991-10-23

Version History:

2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one
or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well
as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable,
and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to
reflect these additions.

2002-01-02 The data file was converted to logical record
length format, and SAS and SPSS data definition statements were
produced. Also, the codebook was converted to Portable Document Format
(PDF).